Courier Capital LLC Sells 700 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Courier Capital LLC lessened its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 22.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 700 shares during the period. Courier Capital LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $35,040,000. Vest Financial LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 39.6% in the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 167,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,128,000 after purchasing an additional 47,351 shares during the last quarter. First PREMIER Bank bought a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $2,836,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its position in Ecolab by 2.7% in the third quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 189,675 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,131,000 after purchasing an additional 5,015 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc increased its position in Ecolab by 8.7% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 890,418 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $150,837,000 after purchasing an additional 71,206 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Thursday, November 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $222.19.

Ecolab Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $231.80 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86. The company has a 50-day moving average of $214.34 and a 200 day moving average of $193.11. The firm has a market cap of $66.27 billion, a PE ratio of 48.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.60%.

About Ecolab

Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries.